Spinach Ricotta Rotolo Recipes

Steps:

• Begin by making the Simple tomato sauce, heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the garlic clove and cook until just softened. Add the chopped tomatoes and season. Cook slowly for 25 mins, stirring now and then, until very thick. Do this a day or two ahead of assembling the rotolo, or freeze it for up to 2 months.
• Wilt the spinach in a pan over a medium heat, then leave to cool. Squeeze well to remove the excess water, then roughly chop the spinach. Season and leave to cool completely.
• Gently fry the garlic in the butter until softened, then remove from the heat and add the marjoram. Tip into a bowl and add the spinach, ricotta and Parmesan.
• Roll out the pasta (see step-by-step images). Cut the sheets into 3 or 4 pieces, each roughly 40cm long, and place them on a white tea towel. Using a little water and a pastry brush, stick the sheets together, allowing a 1cm overlap.
• Using a spatula, spread the filling over the pasta as evenly as possible, leaving a 1cm border around the edge.
• Fold over the edge of the pasta nearest to you and, using the tea towel and the weight of the pasta, roll it away from you like you would a Swiss roll.
• Brush the open edge of the pasta with a little water and press together to seal.
• Wrap the pasta roll tightly in the tea towel and tie a piece of string round it every 10cm or so (or use a butcher's knot - see step-by-step images). Tie the ends with string to secure them, leaving a long piece of string at each end to act as a handle.
• Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil (a fish kettle is ideal, but a deep roasting tin filled with water works well too) and cook the rotolo for 20 mins. Remove from the water and leave to cool. Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5.
• Gently unwrap the rotolo and cut it into 3cm slices. Arrange the slices in a baking dish. Spoon over the Simple tomato sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan and drizzle with a little olive oil. Bake for 15 mins until the pasta is hot and crisping around the edges.

Steps:

• 1.Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Tomato Sauce 1.Heat oil in a 22cm/9" ovenproof pan over medium high heat. 2.Add garlic and sauté for 10 seconds then add onion. 3.Cook onion until translucent and starting to turn golden, then add the remaining Tomato Sauce ingredients. 4.Simmer for 2 minutes to bring the flavours together, then remove from heat. 5.Scoop out 1 cup of the Tomato Sauce which will be used to drizzle over the dish at the end. Filling 1.Defrost the spinach in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. 2.Squeeze the excess water out of the spinach using your hands, then place in a large bowl. 3.Add remaining Filling ingredients and mix well to combine. I find it easiest (fastest) to do this with my hands. Assembling 1.As per the photo, lay out the lasagne sheet with the shorter end in front of you. The reason is that you want to roll these up so they are fatter than cannelloni. 2.Place ⅓ cup (packed) of filling onto the lasagne sheet. Dab some water on the end furthest away from you (to seal the roll), then roll up starting from the end closest to you. Finish with the seal down. 3.Continue with remaining lasagne sheets. 4.Cut rolls into 3 (so each piece is 3.5cm/1.5" wide). 5.Place the rolls into the tomato sauce with the filling facing up. 6.Drizzle the reserved Tomato Sauce over the rotolo, then bake for 20 minutes. 7.Remove from oven and scatter the mozzarella over. Return to oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden. 8.Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Notes 1. Don't worry if your lasagne sheets are not exactly the same size, so long as they are the right size for rolling up (or cut to size) you can use any size you want. 2. Passata is pureed tomato, thinner than tomato paste and smoother than crushed tomatoes. You can substitute with crushed tomatoes but you will need to add about ⅓ cup of water when simmering the sauce otherwise it will dry out too much when baking. 3. You can substitute the frozen with fresh spinach if you want. You will need 200g/7oz of fresh spinach. Add it raw to the filling mixture, but before doing so you will need to squeeze it (a handful at at time) to get the excess liquid out, otherwise your filling will be watery. 4. Tomato passata is just pureed canned tomatoes. Nowadays it is readily available in supermarkets, usually alongside pasta sauces. It costs just a tiny bit more, sometimes the same, as canned tomatoes. If you can't find it, puree canned tomatoes or use crushed canned tomatoes. 5. To make ahead, this is best frozen before baking. Assemble the dish but do not put the cheese on (because if you bake it the whole time with the cheese, the cheese will burn), freeze in an airtight container, then defrost completely before baking (follow the recipe instructions). You will probably need to add 5 minutes to the baking time. If you freeze it after baking it: defrost completely then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of water (most of it over the pasta sauce) per 6 pieces of rotolo before reheating. If you reheat it in the microwave, stick it under the grill/broiler for a few minutes (after reheating it) to make the top crunchy again, and I also recommend adding some fresh cheese, just to freshen the dish up. To reheat it in the oven, reheat at 180C/300F covered until just warmed through. Then remove the cover, scatter over some fresh cheese then return to oven until the top is crunchy, the cheese melted and the rotolo is heated through.